Angle Of Jig Hook In Swimbait Question!?

[Landry]

I designed a 10" solid soft plastic swimbait for Muskie with an internal harness made of lead and .062 wire. The front line eye is about 40-45 degrees angled up.

My bait swims a little tail heavy - tail end hangs down slightly below level/horizontal.

My question is this:

- if I redesigned my harness so that the front eye was designed with a 90 degree bend, would this help level my bait out as it is retrieved, sort of creating a stronger lever??

Any ideas guys???

Thanks

Landry

[canuck]

If your bait is tail heavy on a loose line and dose not correct itself with the lift generated by the retrieve speed I would think that weight distribution and balance is more the cause than the choice of front  hook style. The type of tail used in your design can vary the glide angle as you impart forward motion to the lure either lifting the tail and lowering the nose of the bait to get it to fish deeper or just track level . If you are incorporating a two hook system ,what size and weight of treble are you using for the rear mount. possibly reduce the weight and size there to help get a better in water profile angle. If you have tank tested your lure for horizontal level and it is not what your trying for then I would look at either reducing the tail weight and possibly moving the forward weight slightly forward or a bit of both. Before adjusting your internal harness I would try using a split ring on the front  hook eye to ensure a vertical leader connection to allow free lure action and also to provide a place  to add a bit of weight (egg sinker. bell sinker) start small and check performance differences as you adjust the weight  to get the desired results. Once you have found the weight correction factor  then you can tweak your harness using the new info attained by trial and error. I hope this helps leads you to a more satisfactory end result. Design is very challenging but also rewarding once you overcome the frustration of getting there ! keep it fun and enjoy the journey. If the hook eye position is still a concern after getting the balance of the lure right then I would  address that at the time but firstly I think other factors need looked at. just my opinion. Cheers.

[mark poulson]

I was able to level out my swimbait by moving the line tie up onto the forehead a bit.  Think rattletrap.

Also, a bigger, wider swim tail will add lift to the tail.

[Landry]

Great ideas guys.

I have designed a new harness and lead mold that puts the line tie loop more on the top of the bait as opposed to coming out of the nose.

I am also going to create a more finely carved original that has a slightly leaner tail portion. I am getting a good combo of belly roll and tail kick but thinning it may give more better weight distribution and more tail kick. I feel my paddletAil is a good size. I did make it angle back a bit rather than vertical. Not sure what would happen if I made it more vertical.

Edited November 25, 2016 by Landry

[mark poulson]

If I wanted to see the effect of different angled tails on a bait, I would experiment with store bought baits.  If I couldn't find a bait with the tail angle I wanted to try, I'd cut the tail off one and reglue it at the angle I was interested in, using some kind of soft plastic glue like Mend It so the glue joint wouldn't be stiff.

[joelhains]

A vertical tail angle will produce a wider tailkick in most swimbaits. And an angled tail will produce a narrower kick but a faster rate of kick. I did some testing with several styles of store bought baits and this was a general rule.

[Landry]

ThanksGuys!

I will continue tweaking.